


Man's Best Friend.

by rennerfan_1



Category: Bourne Legacy (2012), aaron cross - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Jeremy Renner - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-10
Updated: 2014-03-30
Packaged: 2018-01-15 05:27:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1293061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rennerfan_1/pseuds/rennerfan_1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aaron Cross is on the run and meets an unlikely companion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Hiding had been a talent he had picked up quickly, as was common sense in regards to running and hiding or to stay and fight. This was one of those times where hiding was his only option and to stay out of sight and out of mind, his ultimate goal to stay a good few steps ahead of the people who hunted him. He has been marked and been followed for the past three weeks, a target drawn on his back to be extinguished ands every trace of his existence wiped from the face of the earth. At least that was the plan until he evaded several ambushes and captures from the people who wanted him preferably dead than alive. A dead man couldn't speak and therefore give information to anyone about the program he had been a part of and the news of strange deaths all over the world reaches his ears and Aaron Cross knew they were killing off the candidates, leaving no trace of anyone who could incriminate the powers that once controlled them like dogs on leash. He simply wanted to be free, to live without having to look over his shoulder and to have some normality in his life that had been taken away from him. Aaron doubts whether that is even possible, it's either run and hide or die.

****

He winces as the dull ache in his upper-arm intensifies as he removes the blood soaked rag he had tied around the wound, feeling fresh new blood at his fingertips. He had been shot at and the bullet had penetrated his arm, sinking deeper into his flesh and becoming infected as time moved quicker than he thought was possible. Aaron looks down into the small military style food can that is sitting on the edge of the small fire, the water bubbling away and purifying. He rummages through his backpack for new cloth and soaks it in the hot water, feeling his blood trickle down his arm as he checks how hot the knife is in the edge of the fire. He needs to remove the bullet and he needs to stop the bleeding, fast. If he doesn't it will get infected and the poison would travel into his blood and circulate, killing him slowly. He wasn't going to let blood poisoning kill him when he had escaped and cheated death so many times before. 

Aaron washes the wound carefully and located the bullet, satisfied that it isn't lodged in the bone as he pulls it out with a groan, grimacing at the burning feeling in his shoulder. He then takes the hilt of the knife that is glowing bright red from the fire and pushes it into the wound, his skin sizzling as he cauterises the bleeding. The smell is simply attroticous of burning flesh and it's so pungent it makes him gag as he wraps a second piece of cloth around it to keep it clean and let the wound heal. Aaron looks down at the bloody bullet in the palm of his hand and he knows how lucky he was that he turned a second too early and not a second too late. He could have died and then it would have been game over, the end.  
His stomach rumbles with hunger as he roots around in his pack for the few canned food items he had left from his last stop anywhere near civilization. He still has the military ration packs from the soldier's he had killed four days ago, but the modified ration packs were a last resort because they had been designed for soldier's abroad, very little in them to eat but held all kinds of nutrients and supplements. Aaron makes the decision to open the can of pressed meat and to keep whatever he has left for the next few days, figuring he will find somewhere to buy more cans so he can keep the military rations for a real emergency. He never does know when he will find his next meal or shelter or if he will even make it at all until then. He just goes on hoping and praying.

Sweat runs down his back in a river over his skin as he hikes further and further along the barren wilderness of Mexico. He has no idea where he is exactly and knows just to keep going, keep pushing forward. He stops and takes a small sip from his canteen and wipes the sweat out of his eyes, his face weather beaten and ruddy from days in the sun and heat. His mouth is patched for cool water, his head spinning as he continues his hike over large boukders. He hasn't seen anyone or even shelter for miles and he wonders if he will suddenly drop down dead of heatstroke and he argues that at least he wouldn't be thirsty. Aaron presses on and stops at the top of a cluster of rocks, scanning the distance through his binoculars for some idea to send him in the right direction. Faintly in the distance, he sees a shell of a stone shack and his heart races. He wonders who lives there if anyone as he goes in that direction, praying harder and harder with every step he takes towards it. As he gets closer, he realises that it's a village. He wonders if he will be welcomed or shunned by the natives.


	2. The itorThe

Aaron's feet crunch on the ground as he surveys his surroundings and he realises he is in a small village that is more like a Ghost Town than running wild with life.The lack of life unnerves him and then he realises what had happened here after seeing the various trails of old blood that lead him straight to several corpses. A sign in front of a shack says the population is five-hundred and someone had crossed it out in blood and had written a zero underneath. He assumes it's one of those little incidents that no one hears about or even cares about, where entire villages are slaughtered and their bodies left to spoil in the heat of Mexico's sun. Aaron spots a small convenience store and his hope suddenly rises, knowing that there will most likely be food and even though he is starving, he can't help but unholster the sidearm he had acquired just in case there is any sign of trouble. 

He edges closer and it becomes more obvious that there is no survivors of this town as he steps over pools of blood and corpses that are stiff like boards. He can't help but wonder what had happened here, but doesn't let the thought distract him as he nudges open the convenience store's door. Aaron let's out a breath he had been holding at the sight of the canned foods and packaged goods that has been strewn onto the floor, quickly salvaging as much as he can and putting it all into a pile. With a full backpack and several of the stores own canvas sacks filled with dried and canned foods, he starts looking for shelter. The pain in his shoulder had gotten worse since removing the bullet and he pilfers the medicine cabinet in the back, opening up the till and taking it's contents. Normally he would never sink so low and steal, but he has to pur his ethics and principles on the line when it comes to survival. He is lucky, fortunate enough to stumble across the ghost Town or else he would have perished at the mercy of the elements, becoming scavangers dinner and dessert. A well sits in between two buildings and as he pulls up a bucket of fresh water, he drinks it greedily and splashes some onto his scorched skin and feels instantly cooler. He fills up the plastic bottles and continues his search for shelter and eventually he finds himself wandering into one of the little shacks that was occupied up until recently. 

The tang and sourness of old blood is heavy in the air and Aaron is relieved that the shack is empty. He unrolls his sleeping bag on the floor and searches the building, finding three mattresses and stacking them on top of each other for a little more comfort. He needs to rest and he needs to eat and sleep and this could be his only opportunity for a while. 

Sleep had come easier than he had thought it would and as he opens up a tin of some kind that he had found in the small pantry, grimacing at it's contents of sardines. He hates sardines and he reasons that they are at least still in date and will give him the protiens and vitamins he's been lacking, but he feels nauseous as he starts to eat his very basic meal. Aaron can't remember the last time he had a real meal, but he can remember what he ate the very last time before he went into hiding, meatloaf and potatoes and a big slice of cherry pie, his mouth is watering at the memory of it. However, he is quickly learning that he has to make do with what he can get his hands on or else he would starve and his lack of survival would only mean that the powers that be who are hunting him would cover up their dirty little secret. 

A noise outside of the room pricks his ears like a siren as he silently sets down his half eaten meal, his thumb swiping over the safety on the gun, aiming it into the doorway. He is ready to run if he has to and he prays that he hasnt been found.

The sound of movement gets closer and his heart hammers in his chest and he can hear his own blood thickening with adrenaline. The door is pushed open and Aaron breathes a sigh of relief to see an Alsatian standing there, looking at him with curiosity.

"Come on, it's okay." He says gently to the dog and naturally she goes to him.

The first thing he notices about his visitor is that she is underweight, looking starved as she lays her head in his lap and licks his hand. He scratches behind her ears and then rubs her stomach, smiling as she rolls over onto her back for him to keep going. He wonders when the last time she ate and opens up a can of pressed meat from his pack, finding a dish and scooping it out. The dog greedily chows down and then moves to the second dish where Aaron had filled it with water.

"There's a good girl." He coos as she curls up next to him, her head in his lap again as he pulls the blanket around him. "Looks like I've got a new friend."

The dog responds by licking his hand again and yawns as he drapes his arm over her body, feeling her breathing evening out. Aaron also finds himself asleep before he knows it.

****

The next four days were spent testing and Aaron had searched every building in the town for medical supplies, feeling exhausted and sick from the infected bullet wound in his shoulder, but what made his time a little more bearable was that he had a companion, the Alsatian he had called Roxie. She slept by his side every night and refused to wander away from him, whining whenever he was out of her view and followed him regardless of what he told her to do. Aaron had grown to love Roxie in the short time he had been looking after her and he realised that having some form of company is what he had been missing. He had already made the decision to take her with him when it was time to move on.


	3. Chapter 3

Roxie lays protectively across his lap as the sun comes up and the air starts to get warmer. Aaron had been in the abandoned town for a little over a week and was eager to press on now that the antibiotics he found seemed to be helping heal his shoulder. He scratches behind the dog's ears and he can't imagine what it would have been like if she hadn't found him, sniffing out the food for her own survival and it kills him that he needs to consider whether it's a good idea taking the loveable pooch with him. He reasons that she will slow him down and it would be difficult to get out of a situation if he was found by the government who are so insistent on disposing him from the face of the earth. But at the same time, he knows he can't leave her here to starve. It would be cruel to expect the dog to scavenge for scraps and then there's the wilderness and it's creatures who would see her as easy pray. Aaron decides to take Roxie as far as he can until he possibly stumbles across another town where he can find someone to look after her, at least that's the plan. Roxie gets up and stretches and goes outside to do her business and Aaron follows her, going to the well and drawing water. He needs to clean his wound and prepare themselves for the day since he knows it would be a bad idea to stay there any longer. He calls it intuition that makes him go, but maybe it's also because the government agency who are after him hired experts inn tracking and survival. He would be a sitting duck if they swooped down on him.

 

After a breakfast of tinned ham and some oatmeal, Aaron packs as much as he can into his bag and fills up extra water bottles. He doesn't know when he is going to stumble across food and water again and he wanted to be prepared against the unpredictable heat and the chances of running out. Roxie nudges her head underneath his hand as he surveys his surroundings carefully from the open door and he pats her head.

"Let's get somewhere safe." 

He thought he would have needed to use some rope as a leash, but Roxie walked faithfully beside him and never strayed except for a few feet in front.The air is getting hotter as the sun climbs higher into the sky and Aaron looks for some shade, to rest and rehydrate. His mouth is parched as he finally finds a decent enough spot behind a cluster of rocks and he takes a few small sips of the water, tastinf nothing but sand and heat in the air. Roxie lays at his feet as he pours some into a little container he had brought with him and he pets her as she gulps it down greedily, licking every trace of moisture.

They continue on for over fourteen hours and call it a night in a town that is bustling with life and the owner of a small motel agrees to allow his guest to stay there with his dog for an extra charge. The next morning Aaron stocks up on as much as possible as they start moving again and the around of a rumbling engine grabs his attention as he looks out the window into the street. He had thanked whatever being was looking after him for finding this second town that was lively and he had enjoyed a full night's sleep with a decent dinner and breakfast before having to keep going into the wilderness. 

A black truck rumbles to a halt in the middle of the street and several people in tactical clothing and automatic weapons, the emerging occupants taking up various positions. The owner of the small grocery store looks on in awe at the spectacle and Roxie paws at the door as if she senses trouble.

"Do you have some rope?"

"Rope?" The owner asks and nods."Sure, I got rope."

"Thanks." 

Aaron leads Roxie out to the back of the store and ties the rope around her neck, tying it to a hook on the wall. He pets her head as she whines and her big eyes plead with him. He is cornered and he knows it. There are too many of them for him to take out on his own and the chances would be that he would die anyway. The reality hits him that he is going to die. A small boy of around eight or nine kicks a ball of rags and Aaron calla him over.

"Can you look after my dog for a second?" 

The boy nods as Aaron starts walking away and the tied up pooch whines and cries after him, making him feel guilty as he tries to work out what his next step is going to be.

 

The men in tactical clothing surround the town and the man who first initiated Aaron into the program leans against the hood of the truck, sunglasses shielding his eyes from the sun and his arms are folded across his chest.

"Cross!" He yells out and suddenly everyone is hiding inside. "Cross! We know you're here. Show yourself!"

Aaron watches as the men fall into the shadows and he knows that he has to get away now before it's too late.

"We will find you, Cross! You're surrounded and have nowhere to go." The man yells through the bullhorn. "You either walk out like a man or I'll tear this whole town apart looking for you."

 

Aaron continues to watch Eric Byer and he can feel the ground trembling with the marching footsteps that edge closer, hearing the screams and shouts of surprise from the people of the town who are being terrorised because he is hiding. Children cry and the sudden burst of bullets makes him sweat, chilling him to the bone as he moves around the corner of a building to evade capture. He watches in horror as a girl with pigtails in a summer dress is dragged towards Byer by two of his men and the little girl is naturally petrified, kicking and screaming as Byer holds her against him.

"You give yourself up or the girl dies, Cross!" He yells out. "Are you going to let someone die for you?!"

Aaron can feel beads of sweat trickling down his back and soaking the material of his T-shirt, his face sweaty and red with the heat and with his rising temper. He feels so useless and watches as the girls parents are held back by Buyer's men, their guns trained on them. The mother is pleading and screaming and the father is offering whatever meager positions he has and still they are left to watch the display in front of them.  
The pounding of footsteps draws closer and he looks down as he weighs up his options, even though there are few and still, he knows what he has to do.

 

***

Eric Byer beams as several of his men bring Aaron Cross to him, dirty and wounded from several weeks and months on the run. The continious hunt had come down to this and disposing of Cross would be the final part of the eradication of evidence of the program and Eric Byer would take great pleasure in pulling the trigger. He looks upon the man who is shoved into the dirt and he feels no pity, especially after the wild goose chase he had taken them on over several countries. He is here to do a job and this time he is going to enjoy it. Aaron Cross is the last and final witness to be silenced.

He let's the little girl go who runs towards her anxious parents and watches the trio hide in a building. Overhead, the sun feels even hotter as Byer's tips his water bottle to his lips and enjoys the cool soothing taste.

"It wouldn't have been like this if you had just followed orders, Cross. Think of all the lives that would have been saved of you had just stopped running."

Aaron says nothing and looks defiantly up at the man who had been hunting him and who had finally caught him.

"The easy part was tracking you. The hard part was keeping hold of you." A smug smile spreads across Byer's lips."But now, I have you and this time there's no way out. What do you say to that? How does it feel to know that you're going to die?"

Aaron looks up at the man who is going to kill him, the man who holds his life in his hands with no sign of hesitation at what he is about to do.

"Everyone dies, Byer." Aaron answers dryly. "Some would say I've never been alive."

"And you're never going to find out."

 

*** 

Aaron knows the gun is pointing at his head from behind and he feels his heart beating wildly in his chest. He never thought it would end like this, but he was so wrong about a lot of things. In this moment, he thinks about his past and how he had been used as a study subject and then hunted like an animal to be killed, to stop information he had from being broadcasted to the rest of the world. He had killed in the name of survival and had lived out of stubbornness to die. But now it was game over.

Eric Byer's index finger moves slowly against the trigger and in a split second, he feels teeth sink into his arm as the gun falls from it. A dog had come out of nowhere and had attacked him, making everyone lose focus and this was where everyone had made their biggest mistake.

Aaron looks around to see Roxie hang off Byer's arm and in quick fluid movements he has disabled the two men who were standing on either side of him. He took their weapons and shot at the other men who were running towards their area and fell like rocks in a pond. Breathing hard and heavy, Aaron turns and feels his insides plummet as a single gun shot rings out louder than the others.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter!

Chapter Four

The enormous crack leaves an unpleasant ringing in his ears as he turns slowly, stunned by what had just happened in the seconds that Byer pulled the trigger. The world is moving in slow motion and he sees Roxie hanging from Eric Byer's arm, growing and sinking her teeth deeper into his flesh. Aaron quickly regroups himself as he lunges for one of the firearms that one of his captors hold, stiff with shock and he shoots and turns quickly to disable anyone who tries to kill him first. Behind barricaded doors and shuttered windows, the residents cower with their loved ones as the small war continues in their once very safe street. They are saddened and amazed at what had already taken place and once the men in dark clothing had gone, they would be angry at the intrusion and most likely turn on the man who led them here if he were still alive.  
Aaron expertly picks off the men in tactical clothing and he stops dead when a shot behind him suddenly fires and the animalistic howls of a wounded animal makes his heart stop. It takes him only seconds to see Byer standing over Roxie who is almost motionless on the ground and the man who pulled the trigger clutching his injured arm. He doesn't have to think twice about it as he shoots Eric Byer in the head and then. sinks to his knees, scooping up Roxie in his arms. Her breathing is labored and she whines at his touch.

"No!" He yells in frustration as he tries to help her. "No, no,no,no!" 

Roxie licks his hand and nuzzles into him as she whines, her breathing staggered as Aaron tries to control the bleeding but he knows it is fruitless. She had saved him and now he can't save her. He feels like he is losing his only friend and her dying is his fault. He can't understand how she got loose and knew to come to his aid. He scratches behind her ears, tears freely flowing down his cheeks and he feels so damn guilty.

"It shouldn't be like this." he says to her. "You were supposed to be safe."

Aaron realises that he isn't going to stem the blood flow and he can't save her, which makes him feel even worse as she twitches, licking his hand again as if to say it's okay to let her go. He watches the light fade in her eyes and then she becomes so still, so unnaturally still and he knows she is gond. Aaron weeps, sobbing as he pulls the lifeless body of the Alsatian who had saved him, who had just given up her own life for his. He wipes his eyes with the back of his hand and blood smears across his face, the unpleasant tang of death burning into his skin as his mind races. He is going to bury her, he needs to give her that final resting place and that way he can know that she will never be bothered again. 

***

The blood from the wound had soaked through his T-shirt and he wipes his brow with his hand as he gazes down at the grave. Tears sting his eyes in the heat and he wonders what kind of life she would have had if things had been different. Aaron slowly turns and walks away, grateful of his brief relationship with the pooch who saved his life. He turns and starts his journey again and he would always remember Roxie, his hero.


End file.
